Inhalt
- Acknowledgements
- Hat, Stick, and Boots: A Brief Philosophical Introduction:
- Humanism and Rhetoric
- Back to the Sources
- All Ye Saints, Come to My Aid
- Part One - The Life and Opinions of a Princess:
- Prelude: Daughter of Orient and Occident
- The Curtain Rises
- A Noble Page in Hiding: The Viol in France, 1550-1630
- The Humanists' Delight: Italy, 1550-1630
- The Entranced Smile: Germany, 1550-1630
- Rainy Days in Consort: England, 1550-1630
- First Legend of the Saints: The Grandee of the Viol, Alfonso Ferrabosco (c. 1575-1628)
- Years of no Grace in the Country, England after 1630
- Second Legend of the Saints: Three Stars in Epiphany
- Hard Times on the Continent: Central Europe in the Second Half of the 17th Century
- The Huguenots's Maiden Friend: France after 1630
- Third Legend of the Saints: The Last of the Humanists, Le Sieur de Sainte Colombe (d. before 1700)
- In the Royal Sun: France in the Late 17th Century
- An Unseemly Instrument? Viol-Playing Women
- The Decline and Fall in the Roman Empire: The 18th Century
- Suspended Animation: The 19th Century
- The Principle of Hope: The 20th Century
- Part Two - Meeting the Family:
- A Word about Respectability
- The Respublica of Consort
- No Less Swift than the Violin itself: The Bass Viol
- The Slighted Inner Part: The Tenor Viol
- Sweet, but too Weak: The Treble Viol
- A Royal Rumble: The Violone
- A Humanist Parody: The Arpeggione
- Observations on Viol Construction
- Pitch
- Transposition
- The Well-Tuned Violdigamb
- The Well-Tempered Viol: Muiscal Temperament
- The Salt and Mustard of Music: Ornamentation
- Aspects of Playing Technique
- The Left Hand
- The Right Hand
- Part Three - Maintaining a Princess in Style:
- A Word about Quality
- The Well-Appointed Viol
- The Bow
- Beauty in Eclipsa: Conclusion
- Appendix:
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- List of Illustrations